Take up your cross...

Today in my personal devotion time, I read Luke 9:23, where Jesus tells us that if we want to follow him, we must "Deny ourselves and take up our cross daily..."

After reading that scripture, I asked myself, "what does it mean for me to take up my cross today and everyday for that matter?"

To understand that scripture fully we have to look at what it meant for someone under the Roman law to die on a cross. In the day of Jesus, someone sentenced to die on the cross meant that he/she no longer had any rights as citizens; the state owned them completely. It was the most humiliating and painful act of death the Romans could dream up. Not only having to carry your execution device(the cross) to the place of death, while experiencing ridicule on the way...but after all of that, be put to death.

When Jesus said these words, he was telling us that following Him means to give up all of our rights and surrender them to Him.
It means though we will be ridiculed and talked about... every morning that we wake, and constantly during the day, we must die.

And because of that death...the life we live does NOT belong to us. We must deny the things "We" desire to do and "Accept" the things God desires for us to do.

Wow, that is easier said, or "typed" than done.

Pray for me... a selfish/ prideful sinner who deserves death, but because of the cross and the grace it brings, is considered Holy and Righteous...

SHUT UP!

There is nothing better than waking up early on the beach, watching the sun rise, while spending time with God in His word. This was my life for about 4 days last week when we took about 140 of our students to Gulf Shores, AL for Beach Camp. It was Amazing! I made the decision to wake up early every morning and study the book of Zephaniah while I was there.

Day one was Zephaniah chapter one verse 7 where he warns the people of Judah to "Be silent before the Lord God..." That one verse has stuck with me for the last 7 days.

It's easy for me to talk to God and tell him what I need.
It's fairly easy for me to think about the Goodness of God, or sing songs to Him about Him.
I can open His word and read about him (in fact I do that quite often.)
I LOVE to talk to other people about God and how awesome He is.

But...It is a struggle for me to be silent before the Lord God. Heck, it's hard for me to be silent before anyone.
I think an important part in our journey with God, is to be willing to be silent before Him. That means turn off the TV, the ipod, ipad and macbook (I'm talking to myself here) turn off the lights and SHUT UP. Be silent before the Lord.

My challenge to myself is to spend a few minutes in the morning and in the evening in silence. Forget about what I have to do the next day, or what I didn't do today. Forget about everything around me and SHUT UP...Be Silent before the Lord God!

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Who wants to be king???

When I was a kid, my favorite fast food restaurant to eat at was Burger King. Not because they had the best burgers because a place in town called Pinocchio's did. Nor was it because of their fries...we all know McDonald's has the best fries. The reason I loved going to Burger King was because if you got a Kids Meal, they would give you a Free Burger King Crown. I would walk around wearing that crown like I was King of the world. I even tried to get my parents to call me "your highness" but that didn't go over too well.

Whether we want to admit it or not, we all desire to rule and be King of some area in our lives.
I spent the week in Elko, Nevada at an AMAZING Christian Camp in the mountains called "Cowboy's Rest," teaching students through the book of 2 Samuel. I taught on the second half of King David’s life, where everyone around him attempted to become King in his place... His generals, his enemies and even his family.

The question of the week was "Who wants to be King?" The answer is we all do at some point in our lives. Just as David (a man after God's own heart), surrendered his kingdom to God, we must also allow God to rule our lives. Not just in some areas but in all areas.

1 Peter 3:15 says, "Sanctify Christ as Lord (King) in your hearts"

check out some of the photos from our trip to Elko, Nevada...

What do you see?

Remember Ted Williams, The ex-homeless man from the Today Show, that someone decided not to just drive past, but to stop and help? When you look at his picture, what do you see? Most of you may see what I saw. A middle aged black man, in need of a shave and a shower. Well, maybe that's all true but should that be what we see?

Next week about 40 of our middle school students will be doing mission work in San Antonio, TX. Some of the things they will be doing is serving special needs youth at a center in the heart of the city and assisting a ministry that serves food to the hungry . My prayer for our students is of course for unity and safety, but most of all my prayer is that during the week they will constantly ask themselves not "what would Jesus do" (even though that is a great question) but, rather "what would I do for Jesus?"

In Matthew 25:35-40, we are reminded that whatever we do for the least of these (ie. the hungry, the thirsty, the lonely, the naked, the sick or imprisoned) we are actually doing for the son of man.

Pray that our students will see Jesus in the eyes of those they interact with, and while you do so...pray that you will do the same.

I admire Lady Gaga...

I admire Lady Gaga, because she is not afraid to be Bold.
In 2006, I remember asking God to give me boldness. That was the year after I graduated from College and was working in Corporate America. I was going through a management training class with about 20 other managers and our instructor challenged us to prepare a 3 minute speech about our favorite leader in history for the next day. That night I went to my hotel room and immediately felt led to stand up before my peers tomorrow morning in our session and talk about my favorite leader...Jesus Christ! Everyone else was talking about William Churchill, Martin Luther King Jr, their grandmother or their childhood coaches, but I stood up in front of my class and boldly explained why Jesus Christ was my favorite leader in history. Later that year I remember boldly going to the mall (more than one time) with the sole purpose of sharing the gospel of Jesus with people.

This morning I read Acts 4. The story of Peter and John going before the Sanhedrin because they didn't like the fact that they were teaching boldly about Jesus. After spending the night in prison, they went before the Sanhedrin again who threatened them to stop teaching about Jesus. Peter and John refused but they still released them. Peter and John went back to the followers of Jesus and reported to them what had happened, and this was their prayer...(Acts 4:29) "Now, Lord, consider their threats and enable your servants to speak your word with great boldness."

We live in a Country where for the most part we can be as bold about Jesus as we want to be and nothing will happen to us. There are people in other countries being arrested and even persecuted for proclaiming the name of Jesus. Why are we so afraid to be BOLD?


Join me in praying for great boldness, today!

Who needs LENT anyway?

If you would allow me to be honest with you...I wasn't really feeling lent this year. In fact I made up in my mind that I wasn't going to participate because I didn't want to do it for the wrong reasons. I didn't want to just "go through the motions" as I can so easily do at times.

But, the more I began to read and study, I knew that I need not allow this season to pass without taking the time to evaluate myself in light of God’s Word, to abandon sin, and to receive God’s forgiveness and strength. Which is exactly what "Lent" is.

So to answer the question I posted in the Subject line... "I need Lent" Do you?